I am so busy and tired...
Life is exhausting and busy right now. At work, I am busier than a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest, as I keep saying. At home, I have not time to rest, since I am packing and moving boxes and calling contractors and visiting home improvement stores and worrying.
Thurs I took a vacation day, but it was no vacation. la_connaisance came over with her kids and helped me pack. The kids laid on my bed and watched a movie on the portable DVD player. When they got bored I set them to work. The Boy broke down boxes I'd had stored [too small for moving] and took the recycling out for me. The Girl helped me empty out my winter clothes closet and then I set her to work re-organizing my scrapbooking ribbon so I could pack it all [I still have a big bag of ribbon from CKU that is not integrated into my stash]. She didn't finish but what she did accomplish she did a very good job on. After several hours we took them out to the pool to play. I hadn't been in our pool at all this summer. I took a quick dip bc I was falling asleep. I went thru a lot of my files and shredded documents so I could pack away most of the rest. La C packed about 5-6 boxes of books and clothes for me, which was awesome. This Friday -- more packing!
Sat I did not get much done. It was blisteringly hot here this weekend. I was so exhausted. I hid in the house and went thru more stuff. Late in the day I made the rounds of the local home improvement stores. Menards is only 3 miles away, has the best service, and had on sale a basic vanity for $169 and an ugly [but new] vanity top for $89. Lowes had terrible service and no vanities under $300. I did not bother to check their tile, flooring, carpeting, paint and garbage disposal prices. I just left. Home Depot also had only very expensive vanities and tops, but their carpeting prices were cheaper. However, delivery is almost $60 whereas Menard's delivers for $40. But Menards will not install. HD's installation for carpet is $6 a square yard. Since the carpet I am looking at is about $6 a yard [I'm not sinking a lot of money into carpet for other people], that would cost me $12 a yard. I got some names from Menards for flooring people that I will call to see what they might charge for installation only. I saw some carpet at HD for only 49C a square foot, which would make it under $400 to carpet my place... add in installation and it's about $700. The carpet guy I had in here quoted me $1100. Big difference.
I did knock on my neighbor's door twice, to see if we could move the boxes La C and I packed, despite the heat -- but he did not answer. So instead I scrapbooked. I had entered a Pagan Lammas craft exchange online a few weeks ago and my partner sent me my gift -- an altar cloth made of what looks like natural linen, with a Horned God embroidered in outline form on one end, and a Goddess figurine embroidered on the other. I had not entered this exchange in months, as my Yule partner stiffed me... but then on Friday I came to work and there was a package waiting for me...from Ireland! My Yule partner sent me a note of apology and an interesting freeform woven wall hanging in shade of red, plus some lovely Ireland picture postcards. Anyway, I still hadn't finished making my Lamma partner her gift, what with the packing and all. Usually I stitch my partners a small pattern from the Celtic Tarot like this one, but for some reason I thought it would be faster to make her a mini scrapbook out of envelopes like this, especially since I did not have any pictures to crop. I was wrong. 10 days later and I still hadn't finished. So I sat down and cranked it out. It's nature themed, made of green envelopes, with nature and fall themed accents and using up old stickers and scraps! I really enjoy making these, once I sit down to DO them. Now to mail it.
Sun was my mother's company's annual picnic. They rent out Banner Day Camp in Lake Forest every year. They have a huge buffet, along with popcorn stands, ice cream stands, sno cones, cotton candy... a DJ... raffles and prizes... a big swimming area with multiple pools and slides.... pony rides... water boats for children... a train pulling children around a field... a mini ferris wheel... about 15-20 of those blow up bouncy houses and activities...basketball and softball... and bingo, with great prizes. They spend a similar amount on their annual Christmas party. My company is CHEAP so we don't get those perks. I went to the picnic with my brother and my nephew [my SIL has MS so she can't really handle being outside in the heat for hours]. Unfortunately my nephew has a strange fear of blow up areas and clowns so we had to avoid them both. He was also afraid of the ball pit initially, but once we persuaded him to go thru the tunnel and into the balls once, then we could not get him out of there! :-) After a dozen runs thru the ball pit we got him to agree to go swimming, so off to the pool. He loves to swim, and can swim under water with his eyes open and everything. You would not believe the huge gryn on this little tadpole's face when he gets in the water. He loved the little kiddie pool with the giant frog as a slide, but he would not go down the big slides with all the twists and turns. He was afraid to even climb up the stairs. I even went down once [ignoring the "no adults" sign] to show him, but he just wouldn't. So it was an afternoon of splashing in the kiddie pool. We eventually went and found my parents and they came in the pool area to watch Nephew swim. After several hours we were waterlogged so off to home we went.
Oh yeah and MY BROTHER GOT A TICKET from the Lake Forest Police. Bastards.
My brother stopped at my place to borrow some supplies to wrap his wife's birthday gift. I was looking for wrapping paper when I heard a loud CRASH!!! from the LR. My dn has never been over to my house before. Of course it is not child-proofed, and what with moving stuff is piled everywhere. I don't know WHAT he did but somehow he managed to tip over the handmade pine bench I use as a coffee table. It was covered in scrapbooking supplies from making the Lammas exchange album, my current cross stitch project and supplies/tools, a bottle of water, sans cap, that I had been drinking, and a giant Diet Coke from Wendy's, leftover from Sat. Water and flat diet coke went all over my stuff as well as drenching the boxes that had been piled on the other side.
*sigh*
My brother was just leaving and I was trying to clean up the mess when there was a knock at my door. It was my neighbor, asking if I needed moving help. I was so tired at this point I wanted to cry, but I don't have the luxury of giving in to my chronic fatigue right now. I said, yes thanks, and we went to work, dragging down all the boxes La C had packed plus several more I had done and taking them to the storage facility. After that was over, I still had to drag my laundry to the laundromat so I would have some clothes to wear to work.
So...I am tired. This Friday I have off for Summer Fridays and La C is coming over again. More packing. My mother is bringing her new SUV on Sunday and my brother agreed to come over and help move stuff. surpriseparty is also hopefully coming over Wed night to help me pack and organize. It is the organizing I need a lot of help with -- bc all the already-organized stuff [books, CDs, clothes, extra bedding, files] has been packed and moved. What's left is the entire kitchen and bathroom. I guess they are pretty organized. I just need to decide what to pack and what to keep. I do need to pack up my scrapbooking supplies or at least get them looking more organized. They are organized, but when you walk in, they kind of assualt the senses LOL. Plus my maple sideboard and antique writing desk have been moved into storage, so everything that was on them has been plied atop my scrapbooking table.
Oh and I need more boxes, smaller than I have. I have a lot of big boxes which would be too heavy to lift if I filled them.
*siiiigh*
Thurs I took a vacation day, but it was no vacation. la_connaisance came over with her kids and helped me pack. The kids laid on my bed and watched a movie on the portable DVD player. When they got bored I set them to work. The Boy broke down boxes I'd had stored [too small for moving] and took the recycling out for me. The Girl helped me empty out my winter clothes closet and then I set her to work re-organizing my scrapbooking ribbon so I could pack it all [I still have a big bag of ribbon from CKU that is not integrated into my stash]. She didn't finish but what she did accomplish she did a very good job on. After several hours we took them out to the pool to play. I hadn't been in our pool at all this summer. I took a quick dip bc I was falling asleep. I went thru a lot of my files and shredded documents so I could pack away most of the rest. La C packed about 5-6 boxes of books and clothes for me, which was awesome. This Friday -- more packing!
Sat I did not get much done. It was blisteringly hot here this weekend. I was so exhausted. I hid in the house and went thru more stuff. Late in the day I made the rounds of the local home improvement stores. Menards is only 3 miles away, has the best service, and had on sale a basic vanity for $169 and an ugly [but new] vanity top for $89. Lowes had terrible service and no vanities under $300. I did not bother to check their tile, flooring, carpeting, paint and garbage disposal prices. I just left. Home Depot also had only very expensive vanities and tops, but their carpeting prices were cheaper. However, delivery is almost $60 whereas Menard's delivers for $40. But Menards will not install. HD's installation for carpet is $6 a square yard. Since the carpet I am looking at is about $6 a yard [I'm not sinking a lot of money into carpet for other people], that would cost me $12 a yard. I got some names from Menards for flooring people that I will call to see what they might charge for installation only. I saw some carpet at HD for only 49C a square foot, which would make it under $400 to carpet my place... add in installation and it's about $700. The carpet guy I had in here quoted me $1100. Big difference.
I did knock on my neighbor's door twice, to see if we could move the boxes La C and I packed, despite the heat -- but he did not answer. So instead I scrapbooked. I had entered a Pagan Lammas craft exchange online a few weeks ago and my partner sent me my gift -- an altar cloth made of what looks like natural linen, with a Horned God embroidered in outline form on one end, and a Goddess figurine embroidered on the other. I had not entered this exchange in months, as my Yule partner stiffed me... but then on Friday I came to work and there was a package waiting for me...from Ireland! My Yule partner sent me a note of apology and an interesting freeform woven wall hanging in shade of red, plus some lovely Ireland picture postcards. Anyway, I still hadn't finished making my Lamma partner her gift, what with the packing and all. Usually I stitch my partners a small pattern from the Celtic Tarot like this one, but for some reason I thought it would be faster to make her a mini scrapbook out of envelopes like this, especially since I did not have any pictures to crop. I was wrong. 10 days later and I still hadn't finished. So I sat down and cranked it out. It's nature themed, made of green envelopes, with nature and fall themed accents and using up old stickers and scraps! I really enjoy making these, once I sit down to DO them. Now to mail it.
Sun was my mother's company's annual picnic. They rent out Banner Day Camp in Lake Forest every year. They have a huge buffet, along with popcorn stands, ice cream stands, sno cones, cotton candy... a DJ... raffles and prizes... a big swimming area with multiple pools and slides.... pony rides... water boats for children... a train pulling children around a field... a mini ferris wheel... about 15-20 of those blow up bouncy houses and activities...basketball and softball... and bingo, with great prizes. They spend a similar amount on their annual Christmas party. My company is CHEAP so we don't get those perks. I went to the picnic with my brother and my nephew [my SIL has MS so she can't really handle being outside in the heat for hours]. Unfortunately my nephew has a strange fear of blow up areas and clowns so we had to avoid them both. He was also afraid of the ball pit initially, but once we persuaded him to go thru the tunnel and into the balls once, then we could not get him out of there! :-) After a dozen runs thru the ball pit we got him to agree to go swimming, so off to the pool. He loves to swim, and can swim under water with his eyes open and everything. You would not believe the huge gryn on this little tadpole's face when he gets in the water. He loved the little kiddie pool with the giant frog as a slide, but he would not go down the big slides with all the twists and turns. He was afraid to even climb up the stairs. I even went down once [ignoring the "no adults" sign] to show him, but he just wouldn't. So it was an afternoon of splashing in the kiddie pool. We eventually went and found my parents and they came in the pool area to watch Nephew swim. After several hours we were waterlogged so off to home we went.
Oh yeah and MY BROTHER GOT A TICKET from the Lake Forest Police. Bastards.
My brother stopped at my place to borrow some supplies to wrap his wife's birthday gift. I was looking for wrapping paper when I heard a loud CRASH!!! from the LR. My dn has never been over to my house before. Of course it is not child-proofed, and what with moving stuff is piled everywhere. I don't know WHAT he did but somehow he managed to tip over the handmade pine bench I use as a coffee table. It was covered in scrapbooking supplies from making the Lammas exchange album, my current cross stitch project and supplies/tools, a bottle of water, sans cap, that I had been drinking, and a giant Diet Coke from Wendy's, leftover from Sat. Water and flat diet coke went all over my stuff as well as drenching the boxes that had been piled on the other side.
*sigh*
My brother was just leaving and I was trying to clean up the mess when there was a knock at my door. It was my neighbor, asking if I needed moving help. I was so tired at this point I wanted to cry, but I don't have the luxury of giving in to my chronic fatigue right now. I said, yes thanks, and we went to work, dragging down all the boxes La C had packed plus several more I had done and taking them to the storage facility. After that was over, I still had to drag my laundry to the laundromat so I would have some clothes to wear to work.
So...I am tired. This Friday I have off for Summer Fridays and La C is coming over again. More packing. My mother is bringing her new SUV on Sunday and my brother agreed to come over and help move stuff. surpriseparty is also hopefully coming over Wed night to help me pack and organize. It is the organizing I need a lot of help with -- bc all the already-organized stuff [books, CDs, clothes, extra bedding, files] has been packed and moved. What's left is the entire kitchen and bathroom. I guess they are pretty organized. I just need to decide what to pack and what to keep. I do need to pack up my scrapbooking supplies or at least get them looking more organized. They are organized, but when you walk in, they kind of assualt the senses LOL. Plus my maple sideboard and antique writing desk have been moved into storage, so everything that was on them has been plied atop my scrapbooking table.
Oh and I need more boxes, smaller than I have. I have a lot of big boxes which would be too heavy to lift if I filled them.
*siiiigh*